Documents obtained by the San Antonio Current show that several staff members in Attorney General Ken Paxton's office stayed in hotels that cost more than federal maximums on out-of-state trips. The records come from American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, which obtained them through Freedom of Information requests and first asked the office for documents in July. The records include hotel receipts, airfare bookings, travel reimbursement forms and rate extension requests from the first half of this year.
The findings follow a Texas Tribune and ProPublica investigation published earlier this month. That report found Paxton took nearly 1,000 out-of-state trips at a cost of more than $3 million in taxpayer funds, many with a private security detail. The documents show hotel costs for staffers often exceeded General Services Administration maximums by hundreds of dollars. Named in the records as going over their federal maximums were First Assistant AG Brent Webster, Deputy First Assistant Ralph Molina, former Chief of Staff Lesley French-Henneke, Solicitor General William Peterson and Paxton himself.
In January, Webster and Molina sought higher lodging rates for a trip to Washington, D.C., so they could stay at the St. Regis-Marriott Hotel at $499 a night per room. The federal maximums were $392 a night for Webster and $199 for Molina. Webster selected "other" as the reason for the increase and wrote that he needed to stay at the hotel. American Oversight said the records show a "culture of excess" in the office. Executive Director Chioma Chukwu called the spending appalling at a time when many Texans struggle to afford groceries. The Current said Paxton's office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.